Tag: UFC on Spike TV

(The terrifying moment when Rogan notices that Samuel L. Jackson is in the audience, and no, he has apparently never heard that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.)

You have to love this about Spike TV, when they have a good night for ratings or even just a qualified success, they aren’t bashful about making sure everyone knows it. Spike sent out a press release today touting their 1.5 rating for the “Ultimate Fighter” 9 Finale show, which brought in “more men in the advertiser-coveted demographic of Men 18-34 (663,000) than MLB baseball on FOX (184,000) and coverage of U.S. Open golf on NBC (384,000) which ran earlier that day.” In other words, they beat a mid-season baseball game and a rain-soaked golf event among young men. But like the fighters always say, a win’s a win.

As fighters go, Chris Lytle is uncommonly honest with himself. He’s one of the few guys in this sport who, when asked about his goals, doesn’t give you some boiler plate answer about a title shot. He’s in his mid-thirties, in one of the UFC’s deepest divisions, and he’s coming off a loss. He knows there probably isn’t much time left, so he wants to make the best of the opportunities he has to put on a show.

In this candid interview Lytle talks about some hard lessons learned in the fight game, why he’s perfectly content to fight a guy like Kevin Burns on a Spike TV TUF Finale card, and what advice he has for the new crop of fighters who will be just breaking into the UFC on Saturday night.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for talking with me, Chris. It seems like the past couple of years your focus has really shifted to being in good fights rather than racking up consecutive victories. Is the quality and entertainment value of your fights more important to you now than wins and losses?

Yeah, I mean, obviously I don’t want to say that I don’t care if I win or lose. It’s painful to me when I lose a fight. I go out there to do what I came to do and win, but I don’t want to win at any cost. I want to put on an exciting fight and win. When I do that, it’s great. When I lose, obviously I didn’t do what I wanted to do. But I’d rather go out there and fight the way I want and lose an exciting fight than win a boring decision. That’s my mentality. I want to fight my way. I want to win, but that’s not the only thing on my mind.